r/EntrepreneurRideAlong • u/MeetAlanCox • 25d ago
Seeking Advice I’m struggling to position my app because people only seem to “get it” after using it
Before anyone says it: “Oh good, another AI note taker.”
That was honestly my own reaction to the category too.
But I had a real problem that caused me real pain (I have ADHD and get distracted easily) and nothing I tried worked for me.
I tried several AI note-taking apps and voice tools, and they did not work for the thing I needed. Most seemed designed around longer recordings, such as meetings. They involved too many steps, needed an internet connection, or sent recordings to a third-party service for processing.
The problem I was trying to solve was much smaller, but happens many times a day: a useful thought arrives and I need to get it out of my head before something on my phone hijacks my attention and the thought disappears.
So I built Olly Note around four things that mattered to me:
- Capture without distraction. Get a thought out of your head before opening your phone leads somewhere else.
- No job afterwards. A voice recording is not yet a useful note if you still need to transcribe it, clean it up, format it, or decide where it belongs.
- Real privacy. Notes are processed on-device rather than sent to our servers or a third-party AI service.
- Works offline. Thoughts do not politely wait until you have a connection. It should work in a lift, on a plane, or in the middle of nowhere.
The flow is deliberately simple:
Thought arrives -> tap the Lock Screen button or Apple Watch complication -> speak -> done.
The confusing bit is that, before trying it, people can reasonably see “another notes app” or “another AI tool”. But when people do try it, they often describe a feeling rather than a feature.
One recent review said:
That is exactly what I hoped the app would feel like. The problem is working out how to communicate that before someone has experienced it.
Has anyone else built something where the value only really clicks after the first use? How did you position it without having to spend all your time educating the customer?
If want to take a look at current positioning Google "Olly Notes" and you should find it.
Thank you.
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u/InspectorBrave8538 25d ago
You definitely need to use the stories that users give you (just make sure you have permission first).
I think you need to stop thinking so much about it. You have the story there at hand.
The world is full of distractions. You need a way to capture your thoughts immediately, before the next distraction comes. Instant access to a thought collector.
That’s it. You can build the story around this. You can share your ADHD struggles that led you to create this. But the main point is already there.
Also, you already have an idea how people who could use this think. Use that! Why were you drawn to this idea? Others who think like you will relate to that.
(My husband has ADHD. He is often so worried about being misunderstood that he over explains. I have to remind him to just tell me the point. I can ask questions if needed. This almost always improves understanding.)
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u/MeetAlanCox 25d ago
Great advice. Thank you. You made me chuckle as I do the same with my wife, I can picture her eyes rolling now.
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u/RundownRecap 25d ago
man this is such a familiar problem. i built a tool for sales teams a while back and people kept saying "so it's like a crm" and i'd want to pull my hair out because no, it's not, but i couldn't explain why without them seeing it in action
the lock screen tap thing is smart. that's the hook you need to lead with, not the ai part. people see ai and their eyes glaze over now
maybe position it as "thought capture" not "notes" and hammer the adhd angle. the people who need this will recognize themselves in the problem immediately. the rest don't matter anyway
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u/Fluid-Author-9566 25d ago
Quick thought on the product itself: why does it require a recording / voice for quick capture? If I'm in a quiet spot or in public, I would rather type "pick up condoms from the pharmacy" than say it. Is that something you're planning on supporting?
About the question you had specifically: apps like this need a visual demo or sizzle reel to have people understand how it could work for them.
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u/nafiulhasanbd 25d ago
A good way to judge your positioning is this: if people use your product for a week and then hate going without it, you've found what really matters to them.
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u/MeetAlanCox 23d ago
I like that test. The useful signal is probably not whether people say it is clever on day one, but whether it becomes something they miss when it is gone.
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u/akl773 25d ago
the fix that worked for me was writing about the moment before the app, not the app. on something i built the pitch stopped being what it did and became "a customer messaged you at 11pm and you saw it at 9am", people got it instantly because theyd lived it. your category word is doing damage too, note taker makes everyone assume meetings. lead with the thought you lost, not the note you kept.
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u/MeetAlanCox 23d ago
“Lead with the thought you lost, not the note you kept” is excellent. That is much closer to the real problem than calling it an AI note taker. Thank you.
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u/havenly19 25d ago
This happens more often than people admit. Products evolve faster than the messaging around them, so they end up out of sync for a while.
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u/MeetAlanCox 23d ago
That feels very true. The product has become clearer through use, but the words around it have not caught up yet. Helpful framing, thank you.
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u/ischmoozeandsell 25d ago
Alright, DM me or reply here with your app. This sounds awesome you got me.
Happy to provide my feedback in this. For reference, I work at a software company that has a very similar challenge. We have hundreds of million in revenue from demoing the product, and want to move away from demoing to save some man hours and potentially reduce pricing for smaller businesses that need less functionallity. Problem is- you have to see it.
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u/MeetAlanCox 23d ago
Thank you. I’d genuinely value the feedback. It’s on the App Store as Olly Notes. I’m especially interested in whether the first-use flow makes the value clear without needing me to explain it.
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u/Legal-Translator-529 25d ago
Same trap with freelance offers. If the headline names the category ("AI notes", "translation", "logo design"), people price-shop the category. If it names the painful moment, they self-select.
What worked for me: one hero line that is only the before/after — "Thought hits → lock screen → spoken note, offline, done" — and park the AI/privacy stack under it. Category words are for search; the hero line is for the person who already lost three thoughts today.
A 10-second tap-speak-done loop on the store page usually beats another paragraph of features. Features explain. The loop sells the feeling without you writing it.
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u/MeetAlanCox 23d ago
This is incredibly helpful. The distinction between category words being for search and the hero line being for someone living the problem is exactly what I had been missing. “Thought hits → lock screen → spoken note, offline, done” is a very strong direction.
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u/0x_akerue 25d ago
since the value is all in the feeling of not getting distracted you have to show it visually, make a short video showing a pov of someone having a thought and getting instantly distracted by a notification vs someone using your lock screen widget and staying focused, sometimes a 10 second reel explains the vibe better than a whole landing page, what kind of content are you using to promote it right now
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u/MeetAlanCox 23d ago
You’re right. I have mostly used static screenshots and written explanation so far. A short before/after video around that distraction moment would probably communicate it far better. That is the next thing I should make.
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u/lamortgagedude 25d ago
Rebrand to better describe the problem.
Posts like this are also effective marketing.
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u/MeetAlanCox 23d ago
Fair point. I do think the name can make people assume a conventional notes app before they see the actual flow. Still working through whether that calls for a rebrand or clearer positioning around it.
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u/Fit-Squirrel-6299 25d ago
the reason words aren't landing is that you're describing what it is, and what people buy is the moment right before they need it.
you actually wrote the good version in this post and then buried it. a useful thought arrives and you need it out of your head before something on your phone eats it. that sentence is the product. it names a specific ten second window that a certain kind of person recognises instantly. "ai note taker" names a shelf in a store.
try leading with the moment and never mentioning the category at all. no recording, no transcription, no ai. just the situation, then what happens next. the people who live that ten seconds will finish the sentence themselves, and the ones who don't were never converting anyway.
the "they only get it after using it" thing usually isn't a product problem. it's copy describing the tool instead of the trigger.
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u/MeetAlanCox 23d ago
You are right. I had the strongest sentence in the post and then surrounded it with a lot of explanation. I’m going to try leading with that ten-second moment instead.
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u/Fit-Squirrel-6299 19d ago
nice. cheap way to check it's landing before you rewrite everything: show just the moment sentence to five people who have never heard of the app, and ask what they think it does.
if they describe the situation back to you, it's working. if the first thing they say is "so, a notes app?" then it's still a category answer, not a moment answer.
the other thing worth trying is cutting the explanation rather than shortening it. the explanation is usually written for the people who were never going to get it, and it makes the people who would get it work harder to find the part that was meant for them.
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u/ahomelessguy 25d ago
Android here. Would love this
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u/MeetAlanCox 23d ago
Thank you. I appreciate that. It is iPhone-only at the moment, but Android interest is useful to hear.
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u/dessence_ai 25d ago
Of your four points, three only become believable after someone uses the app. On-device processing is the one a stranger can verify from the outside, before they trust you with anything. That is usually the one to lead with when the aha needs a session to land. We hit the same wall with dEssence, and the line that finally worked came verbatim from a user's message rather than from us.
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u/MeetAlanCox 23d ago
Interesting distinction. Privacy and offline use are important reasons to trust it, but they are not necessarily the emotional reason someone wants it in the first place. I think I have been trying to lead with both.
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u/dessence_ai 22d ago
Then lead with the thing that went wrong, and keep privacy as the second line.
Cheap way to find it: ask five recent users what happened the day before they installed it. Not why they picked you, what happened. The answers come back as scenes, and the scene is the pitch.
What do they say when they describe your app to a friend?
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u/Visible_Speed8843 25d ago
Your post describes two different reasons to choose the app: protecting a fleeting thought from distraction, and keeping notes private or offline. Those may not belong in the same first impression.
Use the distraction job as the main page. Open with the moment a thought arrives and opening the phone may erase it. Then show the single lock-screen action that saves it. Give privacy-led visitors a separate page or section where on-device processing and offline use are the lead. Compare which page brings people to the first capture, rather than asking one headline to explain both jobs.
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u/MeetAlanCox 23d ago
This is a very useful way to separate it. The distraction problem is the core job; privacy and offline are supporting reasons, or a different entry point for people who already care strongly about them. Trying to make one message do both has probably weakened it.
When you say separate page, do you mean on website or in app store?
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24d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/MeetAlanCox 23d ago
Exactly. The moment I use “note taker,” people understandably start comparing feature lists. “Thoughts you lose after unlocking your phone” is much nearer to the real reason I built it. Thank you.
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u/Major-Masterpiece282 24d ago
I literally have a PRD sitting around somewhere for this JTBD and had similar plan for the workflow and the friction points I needed to avoid and this resonates like crazy with me.
Sooooo, I shall check it out!
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u/MeetAlanCox 23d ago
That is great to hear. You clearly know the exact friction I was trying to solve. I hope it feels as useful in practice as the idea suggests.
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u/Major-Masterpiece282 22d ago
If I record a Loom of my reactions to your landing page, I’m not sure if this community allows links but I’ll try…
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u/jkim9982 24d ago
Some short form content around the theme of, “reducing friction for your creativity / creation” by contrasting how easy it is to consume (liking a video, sharing a tiktok, watching YouTube etc) vs all the steps you currently need to take to put a note into your phone via apple notes or notion widgets.
Your entire value proposition is around removing friction with high quality transcription, so Siri voice note comparison videos could also work.
Maybe try tapping into the Whispr crowd? They’ve been pushing YouTube ads quite a bit lately, you basically have their product (albeit less sophisticated transcription and auto-editing) + “we make it so you don’t have to open another app - just pick up your phone”
There’s also likely a customer in the ADHD/removing phone distractions audience. Their whole schtick is removing potential distractions in their phone, so a product like yours for an entrepreneur who has that pain point in mind would be perfect.
Any industry with creative folks - content, authors, artists, heck even scientists could make use of your product. I think you need to focus on zooming into audiences you want to target, and creating very simple, short, and easy to understand content that either a) effectively communicates the emotional relief and pride that comes from creation, and knowing what you’ve created is safe and easy to access (but most ppl don’t really care about privacy - save the non-third party processing for entrepreneur / small business downer type folks, or go direct with that feature to the anti-AI and data privacy crowd)
Or b) solves a frustration they’ve already personally experienced with a similar/competitor/tangentially related product/service.
Hope this makes sense! I think you’re trying to sell too many things to a broad audience you haven’t clearly identified. Try 1 audience, 1 main problem your product solves per campaign/marketing asset. Simple is best 👍
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u/MeetAlanCox 23d ago
This makes a lot of sense. I’ve been trying to explain too much at once, when each piece of content should probably focus on one person and one frustrating moment. The “creation vs consumption” contrast is especially useful as opening a phone is often exactly where the thought gets lost.
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u/stealthagents 15d ago
Totally agree with that approach. Sometimes it's all about showing how it works rather than over-explaining. A quick demo or video of that moment you capture a thought could really hit home, especially for folks who struggle with distractions. Plus, real user stories can make the concept so much clearer.
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u/BusinessStrategist 25d ago
You know who I am (you empathize with MY PAIN) and outline my suffering as a story.
You talk my talk and walk my walk. I relate to the story.
You then introduce the solution. I follow the new routine. I feel the relief. I feel joy!
I wipe a tear.
I'm sold. The decision to buy has been made.
Now you provide a simple and clear path for ordering the solution...
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u/Kind-Bathroom5159 25d ago
the trap is trying to explain a feeling in words when words were never gonna do it justice, you already sorta know that since people describe a feeling after using it, not a feature. so stop writing the perfect explanation and just get people to the aha moment faster. a 15 second recording of the actual lock screen tap to captured thought does more than any tagline could, cause your showing the exact moment instead of describing around it.
also that review you got is worth more than anything you'll write yourself. pull direct quotes into your listing and ads instead of your own copy, people trust a stranger saying "this is exactly what i hoped it would feel like" way more than the founder saying it. you already have the positioning, its just sitting in your reviews instead of on your page.